Meet Julie Kraus, Manager, Cancer System Quality

Joining the Cancer Care Program as manager of Cancer System Quality occurred at just the right time for Julie Kraus on both a professional and personal level.

She and her husband Scott spent nine years in Ontario, learning and gaining experience in their respective careers. She held several roles at Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario) in prevention and screening and then moved over to clinical programs with the Radiation Treatment Program as team lead. The work was enjoyable and rewarding – but with a young family, the pull to return home to be closer to her Nova Scotia family was strong.

The opening for manager of Cancer System Quality was a case of the right role at the right time. “I loved working with the radiation treatment team in Ontario,” Julie says. “It’s a tight knit clinical community that is dedicated to improving quality and standardization at a system level. I enjoy being able to see initiatives through from planning to implementation and we were able to successfully do that, which was extremely rewarding. The new position excites me as quality is at the heart of everything we do in healthcare and I’m looking forward to being a part of quality work that spans the cancer continuum, as it will offer new learning opportunities.”

Julie’s background is as a registered dietitian and during her internship with the former South Shore District Health Authority in Nova Scotia she was first exposed to the impact of policy/system level initiatives, which inspired her to broaden her career options through a master’s in business administration (MBA). “It was there that I realized the valuable impact I could make at a policy and system level,” she says. 

Several years later and a few months into her position with Nova Scotia Health’s Cancer Care Program, Julie and her team of three are beginning a planning process to assess the current landscape. This will inform objectives and strategic direction for the quality team going forward to support the Cancer Care Program. This will include refreshing the Cancer Care Program’s quality structure and council. The team is also diving into planning for accreditation, with the next scheduled accreditation in fall 2026.

Outside of work, Julie and her husband, Scott, are enjoying time with their children, four-year-old Anna and two-year-old Phoebe, creating new memories with family and friends, and taking the chance to re-explore the province. Julie shared that a highlight of their summer was taking the girls sailing on the South Shore and “our first family vacation to PEI. Our youngest still insists her bag is packed to go back to PEI – so I’d say it was a hit!” 

Photo of Julie Kraus.